How Negotiate for Free Office Space with your Employer

Are you struggling with working from home? Getting constantly distracted by the noise of family members or neighbors? Or maybe there just isn’t a good space in your home to work from? We have the answers you need to boost your productivity, be part of a community and improve your work-life balance – all for free

“ I was concerned that I would not have a dedicated area to go to in order to complete important calls, or work for a dedicated time block.”
-Carley, a member at Workzones

The problem with working at home

There are a myriad of problems stemming from working at home. The workspace might be too loud, hard to focus, and have a lot of distractions. Your work life and your home life might not have enough separation, making you feel lost and unable to work as sufficiently as you could. In addition there may be noisy family members or neighbors about, only adding to the stress. Getting access to an office space may be able to alleviate the negative effects of remote working and give access to a wider network of connections not available when you’re simply stuck at home.

How women might be disproportionately affected by remote work

“Nearly 1 in 4 (23%) women report difficulty forming strong work relationships remotely, compared to only 18% of men” (SHRM 1).

Women especially are more likely to see the negative side of remote work. In one study, 23% of women reported having more difficulty forming strong work relationships than in the office, and 20% reported having fewer networking opportunities, with non-white women being affected more on average than white women. 72.3% of working women have children under 18, making remote work at home all the more harder. In this male-centric work, where (white) women are already making 77 cents to the dollar, any setbacks can be difficult to get past.

Getting an office space for free: Tips and Tricks

A simple solution to the problem- getting an office space- may seem like too much of an investment. However, with a little bit of negotiating, you can convince your employer to pay for your office space at places like Workzones as a part of your work contract, completely mitigating this problem.

Take advice from Julia, who has negotiated with two different employers to pay for her office:

1. The first step is quite simple, just take the initiative and ask your employer! You may be surprised by the answer and will never know if a free office space is possible until you do.
2. If you need to negotiate, be polite and summarize why an office space is necessary for your work.
3. When summarizing, give personal reasons as to why you need the space to help convince the employer to pay for a space.
4. Do research on pricing. This shows how much you care about getting an office space and your efforts may be matched by your employer. This also shows that you are looking for the best options for your employer as well.
5. If you are starting a new job, make it a point to bring up office space in your work contract as a benefit. This will help set standards and guarantee an office space that may be essential to your wellbeing and the productivity of your work!

Special thanks to Julia and Claudia for helping out on this blog!